Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
Facebook privacy: posting your own legal notices is ‘meaningless’, says expert
5 December, 2014 by FFM in Technology
source : www.cbc.ca
Facebook users posting notices on their timeline to try to protect their personal information
Facebook users may have seen a flurry of “legal notices” popping up on their Facebook feed lately, notices they are encouraged to post on their timeline to protect their personal information.
The notices often begin like this: “Due to the fact that Facebook has chosen to involve software that will allow the theft of my personal information…”
But according to CBC’s technology columnist Dan Misener, who spoke to Stephen Quinn on CBC’s On The Coast, there is no legal merit to these notices, and they are in fact “meaningless.”
“The legal terms of your relationship with Facebook are set by the terms of service and the data use policy that you agreed to when you first signed up,” said Misener.
“You can’t just decide on your own to change those by copying and pasting something on your timeline.”
Over the last couple of months, Facebook has been notifying users of terms of service changes that will go into effect in January.
Facebook’s current Terms of Service
Facebook’s Terms of Service change from Jan. 1, 2015
Misener said these kind of notices often pop up whenever Facebook makes changes to its privacy policy and compared the posts to a chain letter.
“[They] play into our fears and anxiety about privacy,” he said. “Rather than propagating a myth, direct your energy towards learning about these documents you’ve already agreed to.”
Misener said that if you’re concerned about your online privacy, learn more about Facebook’s actual stance on privacy.
He recommends two websites you can use to learn about online privacy agreements for social media sites, including Facebook:
Tosdr (Terms of Service; Didn’t Read) which breaks down terms of service documents into easily understandable language
TOSBack which tracks the terms of service changes of social media sites over time.